When I was a younger person, I used to think about what I wanted to be when I became an adult. In my teen years, I used to spend a lot of time listening to music. I was a member of the “Record of the Month Club” where I got long playing records in the mail every month. I was a huge fan of many of the rock groups of the mid-sixties and I would visualize myself playing before large crowds of adoring fans. I remember fantasizing about it as I lay in bed at night. It was a dream.

Today, much later in life, I still have dreams and visions but they are maybe a bit more realistic. As it turns out, I never had the talent or devotion to be a musician of any kind. Music was not my strong suit, so to speak.

However, I still have things that I can offer the world.

Let me reveal other thoughts that you may think strange.

I have thoughts like “why me, why now”? Why have you chosen me to be in relationship Lord? Why have you put me in the world right now?

The world today is very different from when I was a child. There is no reason to highlight all the changes. But at times I wonder if I am where I am supposed to be. Would it be better to be living in another time, in another place other than where I am?

Then I think about God’s plan for me.

And the questioning stops.

Pastor Chan writes in Chapter 10 about how there is no other me anywhere else. God created me to accomplish what he wants me to accomplish here and now. This is the location. This is the time. I have the personality. I have the skills He wants me to have.

What do I need to do?

Be discerning.

This word gets tossed around a lot in church. I have a pastor friend who says we need to “practice discernment.” What does it mean? A good definition in a Christian context is “perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.” John McArthur the popular Christian pastor, writer and evangelist says discernment means “nothing more than the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong. Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. In other words, the ability to think with discernment is synonymous with an ability to think biblically.”

It is a major factor in decision-making.

The point I am trying to make is, discernment will give you guidance about what to do as you live your days here on earth.

God speaks to us every day. The messages are frequent and they are in the minutes and hours we live here on earth every day. However, this world today is full of messages or what I call “noise.”

The noise is everywhere. It comes from the television screen, the computer screen, the ipads, the ipods, our smart phones [you get the point]; it is everywhere. Talk can be noise as people don’t really take the time to communicate. They express their feelings and let it go at that. They have no intention of listening to a response.

With all this going on, do you think that we can discern a message from God?

No, there are too many distractions.

Too much noise.

I am writing now at home. No tv. Susan is running errands. No music. No radio. I can hear the wind outside blowing and the wind chimes on the front porch are making a tinkling sound. It is just me and the computer screen and the words are hopping on the screen. Even this can have noise. I get the urge to check email or I go onto a browser to define something and then I find myself distracted by pictures on the browser [news of the day]. I almost clicked on “10 Foods You Need to Avoid Altogether” but I stopped myself to get back to this blog.

Discernment.

Requires quiet reflection time. Being open to the will of God. Moving as He directs you. Taking action as He directs.

Getting away from the noise.

No I don’t have those youthful dreams of being on a stage with a guitar. Blasting out a song that is making all the little girls swoon.

But, I do have some answers to the “why me, why now” questions that I have. They come every day as I live out my days. I know why I am here now.